Demographic and clinical characteristics of women and children at birth based on vulnerability classification
| Characteristics | Vulnerable (n=124 668) | Non-vulnerable (n=240 470) |
| Women | ||
| Age (mean±SD) | 28.4±6.5 | 31.0±4.9 |
| Identified as Indigenous (n %) | 18 708 (15.0%) | 2489 (1.0%) |
| Single (n %) | 77 053 (61.8%) | 27 579 (11.5%) |
| Smoked after 20 weeks’ gestation (n %) | 29 548 (23.7%) | 5769 (2.0%) |
| Pre-existing medical condition (n %) | 70 589 (56.6%) | 35 719 (14.9%) |
| Born in Australia (n %) | 49 654 (39.8%) | 47 646 (19.8%) |
| Socioeconomically disadvantaged (n %)* | 27 928 (22.6%) | 12 669 (5.3%) |
| Children | ||
| Weeks’ gestation at birth (mean±SD) | 38.4±2.4 | 38.7±2.1 |
| Gender (n %) | ||
| Male | 64 347 (51.6%) | 123 730 (51.5%) |
| Females | 60 308 (48.4%) | 116 618 (48.5%) |
| Stillborn (n %) | 742 (0.6%) | 1123 (0.5%) |
| Admitted to SCN or NICU (n %) | 27 428 (22.0%) | 38 679 (16.1%) |
| Low APGAR score (<7 at 5 min) (n %) | 3834 (3.1%) | 5203 (2.2%) |
| Developed a chronic health condition (n %)† | 13 707 (11.0%) | 29 351 (12.2%) |
*Defined as Q1 or Q2 of the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage.
†Within the timeframe of the dataset (between 2 and 5 years of age).
APGAR, Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and Respiration; NICU, neonatal intensive care unit; SCN, special care nursery.